4 March 2014, Logic Tea, Julian Kiverstein

Abstract

Common ground is often conceptualized in terms of background knowledge and presuppositions that is relied upon in conversations. In this talk I will discuss some work that I'm currently doing with researchers at Aarhus university in which we argue for a broadening of this concept of common ground to shared understanding of a context of activity. We argue for conversation as a type of joint action (following Herbert Clark) and we explore how common ground can be brought about through the dynamics of coordination in joint action. Language turns out to play a central role in achieving common ground insofar as language is, as David Lewis argued, a tool for coordination.

For more information, please visit the website http://www.illc.uva.nl/logic_tea/. or contact Guus Eelink (guuseelink at gmail.com), Johannes Marti (johannes.marti at gmail.com) or Masa Mocnik (masa.mocnik at gmail.com).